Hertz is a technology teacher at Alliance for Progress Charter School in North Philadelphia. Notebook readers may recognize Hertz from her blog Philly Teacher, which is standard fare in the Notebook’s Notes from the news. She also blogs about technology in the elementary grades at Edutopia, and is a weekly moderator on the #edchat discussion on Twitter.

This fall Hertz crowdsourced tips on how to raise money for another project: a robotics club for girls. She raised $670 for the club online.

Hertz said she had "a lot of ideas" on what to do with the teach-off prize money. Her position as a K-6 technology specialist would have helped the money to go far. She said, “If I get something for my classroom, I get to affect the whole school.”

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